Our Hellaburban Home

Drifting Sand. Change within change. It's how we roll. Fall 2017.

In 2011...

P and I bought a ninety-six year-old bungalow, at the drop-dead bottom of the Hellaburban housing market. At the time Young S was in preschool, I was pregnant with Young T and doing some freelance writing, P was employed full time, and hey, how hard could this be?

Let's buy a house, we said. We can fix it up, we said. Sweat equity for the win, we said....

Before moving in, we paid to replace the roof, wiring, plumbing, sewer lateral, and water heater. A seismic engineer came in to inspect our foundation and draft a plan for retrofitting. We went a year without a furnace until we could qualify for a rebate program that would allow us to install a hydronic heating system.

On our own, we have removed blighted trees and several tons of concrete and soil. We've dug three french drains so far, and installed a sump pump. While we have a lot of concrete to remove, and ever more Bermuda grass, We also have begun planting our perennial food garden and keeping chickens for eggs. Our nano-farm contains nine fruit trees, two berry patches, a 4'x12' garden bed, and a small flock of chickens.